New York, Jan 18 : Former US President Donald Trump was handed a limited “Gag Order” from the appeals court even as he appeared in courts here in two different cases as the lower Manhattan NY Attorney General Letita James launched her closing arguments in the civil fraud trial upping the damage claims to $370 million from the earlier $250 million.

Trump had appealed the gag order issued by the Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron to the appeals court which struck it down upholding the gag order, media reports said.  Closing her arguments against Trump for inflating assets values to secure loans illegally and obtain lower insurance premiums while upping the penalty charges, New York AG Letitia James told judge Arthur Engoron and the jurors that her case was never about politics or vendetta or about name calling. 

“This case is about the facts and the law and Trump violated the laws,” she said. 

Trump has been maintaining that the trial was politically motivated, and that incumbent President Joe Biden had launched a “political witch hunt” against him using the democrat AG James. But facts show that Biden was not even president when James filed the case. 

“This case has never been about politics, personal vendetta, or about name calling. This case is about the facts and the law, and Donald Trump violated the law,” James said.  James thanked her team, the judge, and Trump’s lawyers before repeating her confidence that “justice will be done” in the case.  “No matter how powerful you are, no matter how rich you are, no one is above the law,” she said.